Two strong hearts: the eternal love story of Kerri-Anne Kennerley and her late husband John

Theirs was one of the great celebrity love stories. Despite the challenges they faced, the eternal union of Kerri-Anne Kennerley and her husband John remained rock-solid.

Kerri-Anne Kennerley is never without a little sparkle.

While the razzle dazzle TV presenter has been loaned oodles of expensive jewellery and gems to wear in her 50-plus-year career, her most precious piece of bling — a Swarovski crystal heart-shaped necklace — is, to her, simply priceless.

Like a splash of eye-popping lipstick, or even her signature skyscraper heels, the pendant is a style staple for the vivacious blonde and a treasured wedding anniversary gift from her darling husband and soulmate, John — who died in Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital yesterday.

MORE: ‘Love of my life’: Kerri-Anne’s husband dies

Kerri-Anne Kennerley was devoted to her husband John.

His tragic fall in 2016 — when he fractured his neck and damaged his spinal cord in a freak accident at Bonville Golf Resort — left the couple shattered, and John in a critical condition at Royal North Shore Hospital’s intensive care unit.

But it was their unbreakable bond — in sickness and in health — which friends and industry pals say carried them through the overwhelming challenges his serious injuries presented for the couple.

John and Kerri-Anne were married for 35 years. Picture: Getty

Kennerley confirmed her beloved’s death in a touching Instagram post which captured both her stoicism and his bravery in the years since the near-fatal fall.

“It’s with a heavy heart and awful sadness that I let you know that my beautiful husband John passed away last night. As you all know, John has faced some tremendous challenges over the past few years and with each he has been extraordinarily brave and determined to overcome those hurdles and live a normal life,” she wrote.

Thanking hospital staff for “the beautiful care they have provided John in his last days,” Kennerley and his son Simon were “by his side” when he “passed away peacefully.”

Writing from the heart, she signed off the post: “John, you were the love of my life.”

Kerri Anne Kennerley posted this image of her wedding on Instagram.

Married for 34 years, the devoted pairing and perennials on the Sydney social circuit, had an enviable relationship her former Midday show maestro, Geoff Harvey described as “a romance made in heaven.”

On paper, the irrepressible showgirl, who hustled for her start in television at the age of 13, partnered with an English gentleman who made his fortune in mathematics and gets his kicks from model trains didn’t sound like the most perfect match.

But for John, a retired UK pools executive who founded NSW Lotto, he knew the moment he first set eyes on KAK, as she is affectionately known to fans, back in 1979 that the aspiring singer, trying her luck in New York, was the one for him.

“She was in a sound booth with headphones on and she hadn’t seen me yet. But I said to a friend: `There’s my next wife!’’

He would make good on that promise five years later, with the couple marrying in lavish style at the Sydney Opera House; walking down the aisle to Anne Murray’s hit, You Needed Me.

As Harvey observed, the monumental venue would prove a metaphor for the role John would play in Kerri-Anne’s life: “he was just always there, always there. Whatever reason she needed him … it was true love.”

Kerri-Anne Kennerley on the set of Studio 10. Picture: Brett Costello

They shared the high-life, skiing in Aspen each year; exotic holidays on safari in Africa, cruising around Europe; or just tripping around Flemington’s birdcage at Melbourne Cup time.

So in love with love, they flew to Port Douglas in 2009 for their silver wedding anniversary and renewed their vows.

The karaoke queen would gift him a love song, singing: “I celebrate the day I said ‘I do’, seemed such a natural thing to do … we’ve lived it all, with endless love, my baby.”

But there have been lows too, faced hand-in-hand (with a glass of wine or two for fortitude).

Kennerley’s last health emergency was his battle with bowel cancer in 1998, back when Kerri-Anne, who herself beat breast cancer in 2012, was hosting Channel 9’s Midday show.

Harvey, her sidekick and work husband in those days, remembers KAK calling him down to her dressing room, where she broke down in tears behind closed doors.

The happy couple enjoyed living the high life.

“She was crying and really so sad, saying ‘he’s all I’ve got’,” Harvey, said from his Southern Highlands home.

Having watched this tenacious Brisbane-born girl take on everything and anyone with unstoppable force, it was a “wow” moment, he said.

“Then I told her to get her act together and of course she did,” he chuckled.

“What she must be going through at the moment is just so very sad.”

Maintaining a constant vigil by his hospital bedside in 2016, Kennerley was comforted then, as she would be now, by her sister Jan Kehoe, as well as his son Simon, and their loyal fur baby Digger.

Close friend and corporate powerhouse, Glen-Marie Frost said in the past it’s been John playing the role of KAK’s protector, confidante and rock.

Kerri-Anne’s husband John was her rock.

When the two legendary party girls hit the town together, he’d also be their rescuer.

“If we were say, meeting for lunch, he’d be paranoid we wouldn’t get home until midnight. And quite frankly, it was often the case,” Frost laughed. “J, as she calls him, would have to come and pick up what was left of us.”

At the time of his accident, the well-connected Frost, who has been pals with the couple since the 80s, has been “inundated” by mutual friends desperate to rally around the Kennerleys since the accident last Saturday night.

“I’ve probably had 50 phone calls from around the world sending their love. It’s just horrible for something so tragic to happen for people to realise how much they are loved and respected.”

While John tenaciously fought his way out of ICU and hospital, his long-term prognosis was always complicated — with around-the-clock care needed — every minute cherished by these hearts united.

2GB broadcaster Alan Jones offered a note of hope amid the gloom of his fall, which rings true now as she faces the world without her rock beside her.

“Kerri-Anne has always been a super-optimist and there was no more optimistic person than John, who expected every one of his model trains to start on time and pass through every model station on time. We’re now hoping that that optimism provides a very successful outcome and a full recovery. Our profound love is with them both.”

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Originally published as Two strong hearts: the eternal love story of Kerri-Anne Kennerley and her late husband John